Thursday, March 20, 2008

Hi - Erin here for Part 3 of the fun stuff I made for my friend Lisa and her family. This last section is about the Earrings and Necklace I made for Bonnie - Lisa's mother-in-law. Bonnie is fun, feisty and very spunky - my kind of gal! When she first came over to look with Lisa she wasn't sure - she's not much of a jewelry wearer, except for several beautiful diamond pieces, so the next morning when I got a call from her saying she wanted to come back and look again I was thrilled. She knew what she wanted - these great lampwork beads by Moon of Mixed Media Jewelry . The earrings are on hand-formed sterling silver earwires - the first time I've made these so that was lots of fun. The necklace is strung on a simple cream colored cording. In both pieces these stunning lampwork beads are accented by sterling silver beads and gold colored glass beads. Bonnie wore both pieces to her son Jon's retirement party and she looked FABULOUS!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

As promised here's the next installment of the jewelry I made for my friend Lisa. The "Dream" necklace is for Lisa's daughter Cerina. Cerina is a budding fashion designer so hopefully this necklace will help keep her inspired. The ceramic pendant was made by Gaea.

This next necklace is for Lisa's daughter Kaylee. The necklace is made from Mirage Beads. Mirage beads are similar to the Mood Rings we had as kids but they are much more sensitive to temperature change. We have had lots of fun with these beads - sadly, I couldn't get them past the teal color, Lisa was able to get them to blue, my son got them to purple. As you are wearing the beads they are not all the same color, but once they are warmed up against your skin they will be mostly blue. The pictures show the color progression.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Erin here - thought I'd share with you another of my favorite things - to make jewelry for my friends. I truly enjoy my friends going through my "stash" and picking out a few beads and letting me run with it to put my spin on what I think they will like.

My dear friend Lisa needed several pieces of jewelry as gifts for her daughters as remembrance of their father's retirement from the military - Thanks Jon for 23 plus years of active duty service. For those of you without a military background it is customary for the retiring service member to give gifts to their immediate family as a thank you for their support. Don't worry Lisa got a few things for herself, in fact that is what I'm blogging about today.

After looking through my stuff Lisa found some lampwork beads made by MyCabinCreations - in fact I loved these so much I had put a similar set in a treasury on Etsy and of course they were bought right up - so I asked Pam to make two sets for me! Lisa decided a watch would be a great gift for herself. After a quick discussion I think we found the perfect combo. Tomorrow I'll show you what I made for her daughters.After that I'll blog about Jon's mom who "doesn't wear a lot of jewelry" but sure has a great eye when it comes to design.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day I'll end with a an old Irish saying - There are only three kinds of men who can't understand women— young men, old men, and men of middle age.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Yesterday I was at the Indian River Craft show and ran into two other Etsy sellers! My next door neighbor at the show was my friend Jodie~ on Etsy she is known as GappyGirl Boutique. If you haven't checked out her adorable items you need to take a look and treat yourself. At our last show (we ask to be neighbors regularly) I had to purchase this cute purse for my daughter.

When I had a moment to walk around I found Jensine of Aspen Spa. I couldn't resist the wonderful aromas of her soaps and picked up these. This morning I enjoyed some Black Raspbery Latte Soap in the shower. What a treat!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

The pendant in this necklace has caused great fun - as I stated in the Etsy listing for this necklace Amy and I could not figure out what this gemstone is. Immediately when I listed it I got a "convo" from another Etsy seller CheapBoutique , writing that she too wondered what the gemstone is ... she suggested we put it in the forums and see what happens. Here's the link to the forum post (I posted in the Etc category) - we only had 3 pages of comments but with-in 2 hours the views increased by over 80!!!!!! So in the first day of posting this item it had 100 views - we don't officially track this but I'm pretty sure that is a record for us. If you have any idea what this stone is please leave a post and we will keep this mystery going...

Thursday, March 6, 2008

It has been an extremely busy time. I have participated in one of three (maybe four-undecided on one) crafts shows scheduled for March and April. Building up inventory, tagging items, and getting ready for these shows is quite an undertaking. I really enjoy it all though!

Today I'm sharing my display and booth set up in case anyone is looking for ideas. Please comment if you have any ideas or photos on the web to share.

This is a very easy way to create a display for your earrings~ bi-fold closet door placed upside down. Tent cards are used to display the earrings and are slipped into the slats. Placed correctly (in a v shape) you can use the front side of both doors. For my pre-Christmas show, these were filled to the floor with earrings. As items sold we simply moved earrings up to fill in the empty spaces.

There are two sets of these shelves. Again, bi-fold doors are used. Slats were removed from one side of each door and shelves were slide in the openings. A fabric drape is used to provide a backdrop. Dress-forms have become a trademark of my booths. I placed some along the top to catch the eye of shoppers far away and it worked! A few people came to the booth and said they just had to see what being displayed. Others commented they recognized me because of the dress forms. The dress forms are used to display necklaces and bracelets. (You see them used as props in some of our listings on Etsy.) As items sell, we simply 'redress' the naked gals with extra inventory.

In the middle of this display right under the top shelve you can see the very cool sign I made and blogged about below. It is hung very simply with copper wire. On the adjacent earring display toward the bottom, you can see necklaces hanging. S-hooks are simply slipped into a slat and are a quick way to use that space.

The great thing about this display is it all folds, stores and transports flat. I can easily get everything into the back of my mini-van (just revealed a little bit about myself ~ sniff. I would never trade my three kiddos in for that Thunderbird convertible I have been lusting after!).

Sunday, March 2, 2008

If you haven't seen the fun products at YMBD Scrapbooking Supplies on Etsy you have no idea the fun you are missing. I purchased this pack of chip board craft letters and decided to use them to make a few UnStrungSisters signs for some upcoming craft shows.

The base is the thin balsa wood strips that you can pick up at the craft store. I purchased mine for around $1, which I cut into 2 -18" long strips (I'm talking about the wood here~ US dollars aren't that big anyway!). Then, with the help of my littlest helper Sadie, we painted it randomly with some different light colors.

After the paint dried, we added a not-too-thin coat of crackle glaze.

Once that dried, we added a coat of black paint, again - not too thin for better crackle.

When it dried, it looked like this.

For the last step in base preparation, I lightly sanded here and there. Next, the letters were glued in place and once dry, finished with a satin finish varnish and..... ta-da!